Free Term Paper Boy's Life
Dwight and Caroline’s relationship can be characterized into three stages. From its inception Jack and Caroline had a relationship based on infatuation alone. Their relationship consisted of passion alone for each other. Caroline was sexually attracted to Dwight, as was he to her. Caroline was infatuated with the person Dwight appeared to be. She was turned on that he was nice and charming and knew how to treat a woman. When they first began to go out Caroline adored the fact that he brought her flowers. Dwight was simply interested in Caroline for what she had to offer him. The passion alone is what got him to that level. Soon after their relationship developed into a Fatuous Love. In the beginning of the marriage the couple’s relationship had been based on passion and commitment. Both were still physically and sexually attracted to each other but the role of commitment came into play as well. Dwight needed a female figure in the home to do his chores, such as cook his dinner and clean his house, as well as a mother-like figure for his children. Caroline needed to settle down and start her life over. She was tired of always being on the run, and Dwight brought as sense of security and stability into her life. She also needed a father for Jack. This may have driven her into the arms of Jack more than any other reason. Dwight had everything she was looking for in a father for Jack. He seemed caring, authoritarian, loving, and stable. Their relationship would continue to go on in this manner until the passion faded. This led to an Empty Love relationship. The commitment alone is what kept them together. They no longer had any real feelings of love fore one another. Dwight was simply with Caroline for the reason that she kept food on the table and kept his house clean. Caroline on the other hand was still with Dwight because she had no where else to turn as well as what Jack had to offer her son. Dwight was like a father figure to Jack, something that Jack never had before and needed at this age because he was very impressionable. Caroline’s commitment, for the fact that he provided for them and supposedly was like a father to Jack kept her with Dwight.
From the time Jack arrived in Seattle to the time he left for prep school
Jack’s behaviors and life decisions were extrinsically and intrinsically
motivated. Upon his arrival in Seattle with his mother Jack made many new
decisions. The affiliation motive is what influenced Jack’s behavior of smoking
and cutting school. Jack’s need for social bonds and to belong motivated him to
indulge in the activities of the people whom he wanted to form the social bonds
with. An example of the affiliation motive is the scene where Jack cut school
and met up with his friends to go to one of their houses to smoke and talk
dirty, while they were watching Superman. These activities can also be
attributed to the stimulus motives. Jack was now in a susceptible stage of his
life. He was 15 and curious. His decision to smoke cigarettes can be explained
by his curiosity to try new things. He was now in the state of exploration,
these activities provided sensory stimulation. In the next scene where Jack and
his friends decided to put a car out of its park position, which sent the car
rolling down the hill, eventually crashing. This is an activity which they
probably did for kicks, but it can better explained by their need for
stimulation, this activity provided that stimulation. Jack may have also been
influenced to participate in this activity by his need to belong and form social
bonds. He needed to maintain optimal levels of arousal, varying his exposure to
arousing stimuli did this. The smoking, school cutting, and car prank can all be
attribute to the arousal theory. Jack’s decision to go live with Dwight was both
extrinsically and intrinsically motivated. His mother proposed this idea to him,
but I believe that Jack was more intrinsically motivated to go live with Dwight.
Jack had been getting in trouble in school, his pugnacious behavior put him into
a very uncomfortable position with his mother. Jack knew that he needed to
change his ways. His decision to move in with Dwight was humanistic motivation.
Jack was motivated by the conscious desire for personal growth. He was not
motivated to self-actualize but he was motivated to excel. The achievement
motive was half of the reason Jack decided to move in with Dwight. He was also
motivated to nourish and protect the emotions of his mother. The stress of
Jack’s constant mischievous behaviors was getting to Caroline and she could not
deal well with stress. She coped with stress by going to sleep and this is not
healthy. Jack had decided to move in with Dwight for the sake of his mother.
This life decision to move in with Dwight was attributed to the nurturance
motive.
In another scene Jack takes Dwight’s car out for a ride. He was
motivated to do this for many reasons. I think that can be explained by the
Instinct theory. Wm. James and Wm. McDougall said that humans have instincts
that foster self-survival and social behavior. One of Mcdougall’s “basic
instincts” is escape. While Jack was on the road, by himself, he had a fake
feeling of escape. There was no one around to criticize or tell him what to do.
He also needed to feel free, away from Dwight and his controlling manner. This
activity provided Jack with a false feeling of having escaped. Jack was also
being pugnacious and curious, these are two more of McDougall’s “basic
instincts”. He was defying Dwight, at the same time he was satisfying his
curious nature to go out driving alone.
The final and most major life
decision, which Jack made occurred in the last scenes of the film. The fight
scene in the kitchen between Jack and Dwight was the last straw for Jack. Jack
had endured enough of Dwight’s unnaturally strict, selfish and abusive manner.
Dwight had done everything in his power to make Tobias's life a living hell. In
that scene Jack realized that there was nothing to keep him in Concrete. He had
been accepted to the Hill school and he made the life decision of leaving. This
decision can be explained in one of three ways. The first can be defined by the
drive (drive reduction). Jack learned that he did not have to stay and continue
to suffer from Dwight’s aggressive and abusive nature. He learned to engage in a
behavior (deciding to leave Concrete) that would reduce the physiological drive
of pain avoidance. The next theory of motivation that influenced Jack to make
that decision was the Humanistic Motivation theory. Jack had realized that there
was nothing left for him in Concrete. It was either stocking shelves at the
supermarket or leaving and making something of himself. He was now at the point
where he had a chance to reach his full potential, and become what he was
capable of becoming. The last and most probable theory is the instinct theory of
motivation. McDougall had said, humans have instincts that foster
self-survival…James had said we have social instincts, one of which is fear.
Jack was in fear of his life. One of these days Dwight may have lost it and
taken it all out on Jack. Jack needed to survive and protect himself. I believe
that this is the reason why Jack left. Had Dwight been a loving and caring
father, Jack would have no reason to fear Dwight and “survive” (pain avoidance.)
I doubt that Jack would resort to applying to the prep schools if Dwight was not
the psycho he was. Without being accepted to the Hill school Jack had no where
else to go, so he probably would have stayed in Concrete, even after the kitchen
incident with Dwight. In conclusion I believe that Jack was more extrinsically
motivated. From the school cutting, to the cigarettes, to the final decision to
leave, which was caused by the way Dwight treated Jack. All these factors come
into play, but the years that Jack spent in Concrete, Jack was extrinsically
motivated by his environment, his friends (the bums) and Dwight.
Caroline
engaged in behaviors, both advantageous and unstable because of the way she
thought. The way Caroline interpreted a situation would determine how she would
react to it. If she thought rationally then she would act rationally, if she
thought irrationally then she would act irrationally. Her feelings of self-doubt
and self-confidence would determine her behavior.
-Tobias goes through
troubling times while he is growing up in the 50s. Being a teen is hard enough,
but Tobias also has to face life without a stable home. Although he is
constantly blaming his mother for leaving his father, he knows that it isn't her
fault. His father was the one that left them.
Caroline’s decision to end her
marriage can be explained by her perception of her husband and what she thought
about the marriage before the time of the divorce. Her feelings of self-doubt
would cause her view the reason her husband left as her not being good enough,
or that he had found a “bimbo” to run off with.
She made a rational decision
to date Roy because he provided for her and Tobias. She left Roy because he had
nothing to offer her. He was a dead beat and he was only interested in her for
one reason (sex) and she knew this. Her decision to leave Roy was rational,
however her sudden judgment to pack up and leave everything and just move to
Seattle with Jack was irrational, even though she moved to Seattle with Jack in
pursuit of a better life. The way Caroline processes information, and the way
she perceives things is the way she will react to these things. She thought of
Seattle as a fresh start with many new opportunities for both of them. Caroline
dreams of having a “better life”, a life more fit than what she had with her ex
husband, Roy, and more fit life than she has now. After moving to Seattle and
meeting Dwight she decides to marry Dwight Hansen. She marries Dwight because
she is thinking rationally. He can provide for them and she knows that Jack
needs a father. Dwight seems to be the perfect husband...at first. Tobias soon
finds out his stepfather's act of being the "perfect suitor" was just a mask.
Only after moving to Concrete do things unfold. Dwight is unnaturally strict and
selfish, and does everything in his power to make Tobias's life a living hell.
Just when Caroline thinks she has escaped the feeling of loneliness and
insecurity of Tobias's future, she realizes she trapped herself into yet another
obstacle. In the end, Caroline decides to leave Dwight. She knew that he never
loved her and that he only needed her to cook and clean. She knows that he never
even liked her to begin with. Caroline realizes that all her decisions up to
that point backfired on her. Now she understands it is time to do, and with her
newly gained confidence she makes the decision of leaving him and moving to
Florida. Up to this point her low self-efficacy led her to make unwise
decisions. Only after observational learning and building up her feeling of
self-confidence does Caroline make a truly substantial decision.
Arthur and
Jack were both similar and different. They were different in both boys came from
completely opposite upbringings. Arthur was raised to be polite and courteous,
where as jack had those qualities in him but chose to act more macho and less
considerate of others. It may have been the influence of the crowd, which Jack
hung out with. Arthur was also more open and carefree. He chose to dress, talk,
and act the way he did, because that was how his mother had raised him, even
though he knew this excluded him. Jack tended to blend in with the crowd more.
He needed to make social bonds and belong, whereas Arthur may have wanted to but
he didn’t conform to fit anyone’s image of what they expected him to be. They
have more similarities than differences. Their mothers had raised both boys. I
think the reason the boys got along and formed a friendship was because they
were both outsiders. Neither one really belonged in Concrete. A town like
Concrete has a certain image of what its boys are to be like and Arthur and Jack
didn’t fit into that image. Also Arthur did not have any friends, and Jack’s
“friends” were only guys who he horsed around with. He and Arthur saw something
in each other, which they based a friendship on, that something was that they
were outcasts.
I would have answered Arthur with a simple smile and “We can
both leave together!” Not to just convince or trick Arthur into getting me the
transcript, but to show him that he to didn’t have to stay. Since neither of us
truly belonged then it would have been rational for both of us to leave
together. If we were true friends then we would both look out for one another
and help each other on out way. I would have meant it, to ask Arthur to leave
with me, because his life in Concrete would be wasted if he didn’t realize that
this is his opportunity to leave. I would also tell Arthur that he can “succeed”
and make it big because he’s a smart kid, and that he shouldn’t let his mind and
talent go to waste, especially not in a crude town like Concrete.
In a way I
seized my chance when I made my decision to move to Danbury. Things weren’t
going to well for me back in NY. I was hanging out with too many people from the
wrong crowd, and that eventually put me in many uncomfortable situations. I was
lagging behind in school and I kept getting into trouble. Had I stayed in NY I
probably would be up to the same things now as I was before. I would be cutting
school and causing my mother even more grief. Since I moved here I have brought
up my grades and am preparing for the SAT’s. That is another thing I doubt I
would be doing if I were in NY. Eleventh grade is the most important grade, and
I knew I needed to do well if I wanted to go to a good college and make
something o myself. The opportunity arose when my aunt moved here and I seized
the chance. I’m glad I didn’t decide to stay, otherwise I would be wondering if
I could have pulled it off.